Chemical Biology Research Emphasis Area

The University of Utah General Catalog

This course will focus on biochemical and biophysical approaches to studying proteins and their functional interactions. Topics covered will include: protein-ligand interactions, cooperativity and allostery, protein folding and design, spectroscopic techniques, analytical ultracentrifugation, calorimetry, biosensors, proteomics approaches, and protein structure prediction.

Bioscience Faculty

Markus Babst

Protein Trafficking, Metabolism, Membrane Contact Sites

Kuberan Balagurunathan

Glycobiology

Vahe Bandarian

Biosynthesis, Enzymes, Modified Transfer RNA Base, Queuosine, Ubiquitous RNA Modification

Amy Barrios

Protein Phosphorylation, Chemical Probe Development, Metals in Medicine

Brenda Bass

Double-Stranded RNA (dsRNA), RNA Editing, RNA Interference, DICER

Paul Bernstein

Retina, Nutrition, Imaging, Carotenoids, VLC-PUFAs, Inherited and Acquired Retinal Diseases

David Blair

Bacterial Motility

Justin Bosch

Cell Signaling, Genetics, Development, Inter-organ Communication, Drosophila, CRISPR, Plasma Proteomics

Jessica Brown

Pathogenesis, Fungal Genetics, Host-Pathogen Interaction

Bethany A. Buck

Structural Biology, Biophysics, and Cancer Epigenetics

Shannon Buckley

Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Ubiquitination, Proteomics

Grzegorz (Greg) Bulaj

Molecular-Behavioral Combination Therapies, Digital Therapeutics, Mobile Medical Apps, Epilepsy, Pain, Depression, Cancer

Brad Cairns

Chromatin Transcription, Genomics, Gene Expression

Erhu Cao

Ion Channels, Receptors, Transporters, Structural Biology, cryo-EM, Renal Disease

Demián Cazalla

Functions and Mechanisms of Non-Coding RNAs

Dipayan Chaudhuri

Mitochondria, Heart Failure, ion Channels, Calcium Channels, Mitochondrial Diseases, Voltage-Clamp Electrophysiology, Metabolism, Calcium Imaging, Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter

Thomas Cheatham

Biomolecular Simulation, Computational Chemistry

Mingnan Chen

Peptides, Host Immune Systems Peptide Materials

Darrell R. Davis

RNA Structure/Function

Katharine Diehl

Chromatin and Histone Modifications, Epigenetics and Metabolism, Protein Chemistry, Metabolite Sensors

Martin Distel

Pediatric cancer, zebrafish models, drug screening, optogenetics, Ewing sarcoma

Greg Ducker

Cancer Metabolism, Physiology, Liver Cancer, Mass Spectrometry, Chemical Biology, CRISPR Screens

Sarah Franklin

Chromatin, Chromatin Remodeling Epigenetics, Proteomics, Heart Failure, Heart Disease, Cardiovascular Disease, Mass Spectrometry

Raphael Franzini

Drug Development, Chemical Probes, Imaging Agents

Hamid Ghandehari

Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery

Philip Gordts

Inflammation, Insulin resistance, Metabolic disease, Atherosclerosis, Human milk oligosaccharides, Heparan sulfate, Glycosaminoglycans, Adipose tissue, Iron metabolism, Microbial biology, Extracellular matrix, Cell signaling

David W. Grainger

Biomaterials and Drug Delivery, Materials in Medicine, Nanomaterials Toxicity, Diagnostics, Cell Therapy

Ming Hammond

Biosensors, RNA, Fluorescence Imaging, Bacterial and Immune Cell Signaling

Kevin Hicks

Metabolism, Protein-metabolite Interactomics, Metabolic Signaling and Surveillance, Protein Biochemistry, Enzymology, Mass Spectrometry, Interactome Discovery Platforms

Christopher P. Hill

Protein Structure and Function

Martin Horvath

Structural Biology, Biochemistry, DNA repair, Eye Health

Adam Hughes

Organelle Communication and Disease, Cell Biology, Organelle Quality Control, Nutrient Sensing, Aging, Metabolic Stress

Janet Iwasa

Molecular Animation, Multimedia, Visualization, Education, Cell Biology, Biochemistry

Michael S. Kay

Protein Design, Viral Entry, Synthetic Biology, Chemical Protein Synthesis

Mei Y. Koh

Solid Tumor Hypoxia, Kidney Cancer, Liver Cancer, HIF-1 and HIF-2

Jindřich Henry Kopeček

Biorecognition, Drug Delivery

Jessica Kramer

Polymer Chemistry, Protein Engineering, Bioconjugation Techniques

Yang Liu

Nucleic Acids, Gene Editing, Biotechnologies, Single-molecule Biophysics, Cell Dynamics, Immunity

Ryan E. Looper

Small Molecule Interactions in Biological Systems

Martin McMahon

Translational Cancer Research, Mouse Models, Melanoma, Lung Cancer, Thyroid Cancer, RAF Kinase, PI3 Kinase, Experimental Therapeutics

Kerry McPhail

Natural Products Drug Discovery, Microbial Macrocycles, Untargeted Metabolomics, Tandem Mass Spectrometry, NMR Spectroscopy, Inhibitors of Protein Secretion, Herptile Microbiomes

Michelle Mendoza

Cell Migration, Invasion, RAS, ERK, Lung Cancer, Signaling, Tumor Mechanics

Matthew Miller

Chromosome Segregation, Cell Division, Microtubules, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Biophysics

Ben Myers

Signaling across the Membrane in Development and Cancer: Hedgehog, Wnt, Primary Cilium, Membrane Proteins / Lipids, G protein-coupled receptors

Gabe Nagy

Bioanalytical Separations, Mass Spectrometry, Carbohydrates

Toto (Baldomero) Olivera

Conotoxins, Molecular Neuroscience

Shawn Owen

Biotherapeutics, Biomaterials for Cell-Based Therapy

Randy Peterson

Zebrafish, Phenotypic Screening, Behavior, Neuropharmacology, Disease Models, Genome Editing, Therapeutics

Owen Pornillos

HIV Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Virus-host Interactions, Innate Anti-viral Defenses

Aaron Puri

Chemical Ecology, Drug Discovery, Microbiome, Natural Products, Microbiology, Biosynthesis, Secondary Metabolites

Christopher A. Reilly

Pulmonary Toxicology, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Drug Discovery

Andrew G. Roberts

Chemical Protein Synthesis, Peptides, Organocatalysis, Catalysis, Natural Products

Minna Roh-Johnson

Cell Migration, Tumor Microenvironment, Cytoskeleton, Zebrafish, Mouse, Dictyostelium, Immunology, Breast Cancer, Melanoma

Koushik Roy

Immunological Memory, Protein Design and Vaccine, Viral Infection, Cancer, Autoimmunity, Gene Regulation and Signaling

Jared Rutter

Cancer Metabolism, Diabetes & Obesity, Metabolic Signaling

Helena Safavi-Hemami

Natural Products, Drug Discovery, Venom, Peptides, Evolution, Computational Peptide Discovery, Neuropeptides, Hormones, Signaling Systems, GPCRs, Membrane Proteins, Ion Channels, Metabolism, Insulin, Diabetes, Pain

Saveez Saffarian

Enveloped Virus Budding

Eric W. Schmidt

Symbiosis, Microbiome, Metagenomics, Synthetic Biology, Natural Products Chemistry, Biosynthesis

Peter Shen

Protein Homeostasis, Protein Structure, cryo-EM, Image Processing, Protein Quality Control, Proteopathy, Protein Complexes

Jason Shepherd

Synaptic Plasticity, Memory and Neurological Disorders, Memory Formation

Paul Sigala

Malaria Parasite Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Heme and Iron Metabolism, Organelle Metabolism, Regulation, and Adaptation

Niladri Sinha

Ribosomes, protein synthesis, translational control, RNA biology, stress-responsive signaling, ribotoxic stress response, integrated stress response, proteostasis, ribosome-mediated quality control

Scott Summers

Diabetes, Dyslipidemia, Metabolic Disease, Sphingolipids, Ceramide, Insulin Resistance and Beta Cell Failure

Wesley I. Sundquist

HIV Assembly, Replication and Restriction, Cell Division

Jessica Swanson

Multiscale Simulations of Biomolecular Systems, Membrane Permeation, Lipid Droplets, ATP Hydrolysis, AAA+ ATPases, Charge Transport, Channels and Antiporters

AC Tan

Translational Bioinformatics, Cancer Systems Biology, Cancer Data Science, Computational Immuno-Oncology, Precision Oncology

Michael Vershinin

Molecular Motors, Biophysics

Yuru Wang

Epitranscriptomics, RNA Modifications, RNA Editing, Pseudouridine, Inosine, Protein Evolution, Biomedicine, RNA Therapeutics

Bryan Welm

Breast Cancer/ Stem Cells

Michael Werner

Developmental (Phenotypic) Plasticity, Chromatin, Epigenetics, Gene Regulation

Karen Wilcox

Anticonvulsant Drugs, Inflammation, Epilepsy

Jaclyn Winter

Natural Product Biosynthesis, Drug Discovery, Synthetic Biology, Antibiotic Resistance

Heejin Yoo

Plant Immunity, Plant Metabolism, Translational Regulation, Programmed Cell Death, Effector Triggered Immunity, Systemic Acquired Resistance, Salicylic Acid, Plant Volatiles

Michael (Seungju) Yu

Drug Delivery, Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine, Biopolymers, Collagen, Peptide

Qilei Zhu

Catalysis, photochemistry, electrochemistry, sustainable synthesis, pharmaceutical discovery

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